A Bronx teacher used her Department of Education email address to solicit sexual encounters, including threesomes, on Craigslist and exchanging lewd pictures, an investigation revealed.
Mercedes "Mercy" Liriano, an English teacher at MS 224 in Mott Haven, used her official email address for the raunchy exchanges, according to a report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools.
Liriano's Craigslist Posts
"Voluptuous sexy AA female looking for dominant cpl — w4mw," the subject line of one email exchange said, according to the SCI report.
"Hey still wondering if you are still interested??" the email read.
The 50-year-old English teacher also asked in a message: "So what are you willing to do n not do?? I ask bc for us we both need to be pleased n would want to please you too. Have u done 3somes before??"
Liriano solicited sex in at least eight emails from December 2016 to September 2017, the report said. "Indecent photographs were exchanged, and one of the emails contained pictures of a woman's vagina and a woman's buttocks," the report said.
The married Liriano sent bikini-clad photos of herself with a message that said, "Hello my name is Mercedes aka Mercy. Here are some pictures of me. Hope to hear from you soon," according to the report.
Liriano Previously Accused Principal of Racism
The emails started around the time Patricia Catania took over as interim acting principal of the school. In February 2019, Liriano claimed that Catania told her she wasn't allowed to teach black history, as reported by Fox 5 NY. Catania contended that she merely told the teacher she needed to have an adequate lesson plan, legal papers say.
"Ms. Liriano immediately went on a loud tirade throughout the hallway and main office of the school, screaming words to the effect that I could not tell her she could not teach Black History," Catania wrote in a deposition submitted as part of dueling legal claims over the matter.
Catania said she became the victim of a "smear" campaign by Liriano and others that led to her demotion. Liriano's lewd emails came to light in January 2021 as part of the discovery process in the lawsuits, according to the SCI report.
Liriano resigned in September 2021. SCI recommended the DOE place a "problem code" in her file that could prevent her from further employment in city schools. She is currently working as a teacher in Georgia.
